• by Laurie Petersen , June 14, 2007

My 10-year-old daughter is no stranger to the Web. To my chagrin, she took a fancy to Barbie.com somewhere around age 3. But this 4th grade year marked a turning point. It was the first time she came home to show me the ropes of what she was picking up from her friends during the day. I asked her to recount her online journey from KOL to The Doll Palace.

How did you learn about KOL?

I was at the movie theater. They showed an ad that said KOL knows everything ... everything a kid can do on the computer. So I checked it out and I liked it ... the first time I saw it, of course.

Why did you stop liking it?

I liked how they had so many types of games, but some of them were really stupid ... I don't know how to put that in a satisfying way.

How could they make it better?

I think they should put more games where they show how to actually play the games. Also, the games are not even like a minute long, and they stop in the middle of the game.

Where do you go now?

I usually go to The Doll Palace. I like the Doll Palace better than StarDoll because you get to design your own girl. There are so many different types of dolls you can make on the Web site -- boy dolls, angels, mermaids. My favorite one is mermaids.

I also go on Club Penguin. I like how each month they change everything. They make sure new games come out. They change the clothes you can buy and the furniture you can buy for your house (for the penguin).

I also go on Disneychannel.com. They have games about the characters on the Web site. My favorite thing to do is KimPossible because you get to go on secret missions and stuff.

You can also write to the characters and send them emails, which is kind of fun. But once you figure out they don't even read the message, then it's kind of a waste of time to write a really good message.